


In the Hall of the Goblin King

by RobberBaroness



Category: Labyrinth (1986)
Genre: Captivity, Fae & Fairies, Multi, some sexual creepiness but nothing explicit, trick - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-17
Updated: 2016-10-17
Packaged: 2018-08-23 02:19:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 422
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8309953
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RobberBaroness/pseuds/RobberBaroness
Summary: The goblin court has its share of stolen humans- and even a beloved queen must still be a captive.





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [shewhoguards](https://archiveofourown.org/users/shewhoguards/gifts).



There are humans in the goblin court.

They play many roles- bookkeepers, swordsmen, architects, concubines. Some were bargained away in deals for power or wealth, some fell through the cracks of broken rules (fairy rules are so intricate that it’s sometimes hard not to break them), and a few lonely souls had been so despondent with their own lives that they’d spoken the words “I wish the goblins would come and take me away right now.” As a resident in the goblin court, they are provided with food and shelter and pleasant company, all the comforts they could wish for so long as they do not try to leave.

The goblin king is a gentle captor, as such things go. Those who come to him as children are educated and trained to do all the things fairies cannot- to design, to invent, to plan. They maintain the goblin court and its grand labyrinth, and as most have no memories of freedom they rarely think of the outside world. Those who were stolen away older must be persuaded to accept their new reality, and the goblin king is nothing if not a practiced seducer. His kisses and promises are hard to fight against, for how can a maiden struggle for freedom when her senses are overwhelmed and her mind is convinced she is dreaming?

To his credit, he never lies to his lovers and servants. He does value them, for without their soaring human imaginations he would be nothing, just an insubstantial shiver on the wind.

Just as goblin eyes watch the incursions of outsiders into their land with amusement, so do human eyes watch with curiosity. They see the grand castle which stands of their own design twist and turn to frustrate the intruder, and they listen to their king’s soft love songs or languid threats as if they’d never heard them before.

When the intruder falls, they join the ranks of the other servants- even a beloved human raised to the rank of a queen is still the king’s captive. When the intruder escapes, it is all the humans will speak of for a year, until the memory becomes so mythic as to be disbelieved. Perhaps someday one of the prisoners will speak the fatal words- “You have no power over me”- and see whether it works just as well for them as it does for outsiders, but such a thing carries dreadful risks.

Even with the freedom to do so, how can you ever leave a land of magic behind?


End file.
